How to find the okey: the indicator, the 13 and examples

The rule in one line

Once the tiles are dealt, one tile is turned face up: the indicator. The okey is the tile in the same colour, one number higher. Same colour, number plus one — that's the whole calculation. Looking for the okey? The indicator is the only place you need to look.

Every tile comes in two copies, so there are two okeys, and both are wild — the okey is the game's joker, standing in for any tile you like in a set or a run. The indicator stays face up for the whole hand. Each hand turns a new one, so the okey changes every hand too: last hand's okey is an ordinary tile this time.

Examples: indicator → okey

The first three rows are straightforward: add one. The fourth is the one that starts arguments, and the last is rare but it does happen. Both get their own section below.

Why the okey after a 13 is a 1

The tiles run from 1 to 13 — there's no 14. When the indicator is a 13, the count wraps round like a clock and the okey is the 1 of the same colour: a blue 13 indicator makes both blue 1s wild. It looks like an edge case, but it can turn up in any hand, so it's worth knowing cold.

That wrap-around is only for finding the okey. Where the 1 sits in a run is a separate rule, and it depends on the format: under the common rules, classic Okey allows 12-13-1, while in 101 the 1 can only start a run (1-2-3). 13-1-2 doesn't work in either.

The false okey: not wild, just a stand-in

The false okey is the tile with a symbol instead of a number; a standard tile set has two. It isn't wild: it only takes the place of that hand's okey. If the okey is the red 6, a false okey is simply a red 6. It can sit in a red 4-5-6 run or a set of 6s as the red 6 and nowhere else, and in 101 it counts as 6 towards your opening total.

A handy way to think about it: once both red 6s are wild, there's no ordinary red 6 left among the tiles, and the false okey fills that gap. That's why its value moves with the okey — the tile that's a red 6 this hand might be a blue 2 the next. In Rummikub the two matching tiles are plain jokers; the full story is in Okey vs Rummikub.

The usual mix-ups

• The okey isn't the indicator. It's the one above: a yellow 9 indicator makes the yellow 10 the okey.
• The colour doesn't change. With a yellow 9 showing, the 10s in other colours are ordinary tiles; only the two yellow 10s are wild.
• The indicator's twin isn't the okey. The tile matching the indicator — same colour, same number — is an ordinary tile. Classic Okey has a separate move built around it: showing the indicator.
• There's more than one okey. Both copies are wild, and you can end up holding both.
• The false okey can't go just anywhere. If the okey is the red 6, you can't play the false okey as a blue 3 — it's a red 6 and nothing else.

At Masabaşı, the screen does the sums

With real tiles, the sums are on you. At Masabaşı you can leave them to the screen: the okey's colour and number are shown above the table, and the real okeys in your rack are highlighted. A false okey shows up in your rack wearing the okey's face — its colour and number — with a small mark in the corner that tells it apart from the real thing.

The host picks how many false okeys are in play: 0, 1 or 2 (2 by default). The okey itself is always found the same way, and there are always two.